ZANUPF says it will not succumb to any threats from Chiwenga but ED says the country is now in a transitional phase and China, SADC and AU have already been briefed

Consistent with the guiding principle of the National Liberation Struggle, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) reaffirms the primacy of politics over the gun. It is against an understanding of this guiding principle that the statement issued by General Constantino Chiwenga purporting to speak on behalf of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) was not only surprising, but was an outrageous vitiation of professional soldiership and his war time record as a high ranking freedom fighter entrusted with the Command responsibilities in a free and democratic Zimbabwe.

Clearly calculated to disturb national peace and stability, the said statement by General Constantino Chiwenga which was not signed, and which did not represent the rest of the Command element, suggests treasonable conduct on his part as this was meant to incite insurrection and violent challenge to the Constitutional Order. Indeed, this is what happens when the gun seeks to overreach by dictating to politics and norms of Constitutionality.

As the Party running the democratically elected government of Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF will never succumb to any threats, least of all, those deriving from conduct that is inconsistent with the tenets of democracy and Constitutionalism. Not too far back, the President and First Secretary of ZANU-PF Cde R.G. Mugabe who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) reminded members of the Uniformed Forces of their subordinate place and role viz-a-viz; the Political Authority of the Land. By yesterday’s reprehensible conduct, it would appear that this wise counsel not only went unheeded, but was flagrantly flouted in deference to factional politics and personal ambitions. Such conduct stands unreservedly condemned not only in the Party, but also in our Southern African Region and the entire African Continent where the subversion of Constitutional Authority is frowned upon and regarded as an absolute anathema.

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The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.